The Plight- Malfoy x Reader

Incongruous Reflections

I stood starring at a complete stranger I didn't recognize.

She had a velvet dress coat with intricate silver buttons, stockings without rips, her short hair half tied up by a black bow, and designer chunky shoes so polished you could see your reflection in them.

She was so...clean.

I starred back at my reflection, shifting uncomfortably then turning away.

Boxes and boxes of clothes had begun arriving in the late afternoon. We had just been to Twilfitt and Tattings this past morning and I was shocked at how quickly they had made so many tailored pieces.

There were many luxurious fabrics and designs I'd never seen before. I'd barley wanted to touch them. They were perfectly pressed and spotless.

I'd tried many of them on. And every time I felt like a fraud.

I'd resigned to wearing a set of silk pajamas as I lounged in my room and admired the backyard—I didn't have to worry about scuffing my new clothes that way.

But when it was nearly dinner time, I'd changed into said outfit to fulfill Lucius's requested that I come to the foyer before we sat together in the dining room.

Id randomly picked each item from the large walk in closet that now was lined with dozens of clothes, shoes and accessories.

It had felt so odd. So different from the little closet in my own room. From the simple linens and muddied shoes stuffed together without much thought. I'd never seen them spread out before me as if on display. They wouldn't have been much to look at anyways. They served a practical purpose. To run and move and be free.

These clothes however... their purpose quite different. They were for elegance and restraint and showing off. All things that were opposite in my nature.

I made my way down the hallway of shut rooms, to the top of the grand staircase.

Lucius was standing at the bottom, frowning at something on a piece of paper then looked up to me.

His mouth dropped open slightly, as he took me in. He placed his hands behind his back and stepped a few paces back from the bottom step. He nodded, the gesture seeming like he was granting permission for me to descend the stairs.

My anxiety rose—it felt too much like a performance.

I began walking down when, not even three steps down, Lucius corrected me.

"Shoulder's back," he said, putting his own back in demonstration. I stopped. It took everything I had to not roll my eyes.

I put my shoulders back and kept my expression vacant and bored as I continued down. A facade of how I was truly feeling.

"Better," he said, nodding once.

When I got to the bottom I stopped in front of him, not sure what to expect.

"Turn around," he said with his finger spinning above me.

I did so with confusion.

He stepped into me from behind and for some reason I closed my eyes.

Then I felt something cool on my neck and heard a click.

I opened my eyes and looked down to see an antique silver necklace with an emerald stone.

It looked extremely valuable.

I touched it for a moment, then quickly took my hand away, for fear of dirtying it with my fingerprints.

He turned me back around by my shoulders to face him.

He held my shoulders and smiled slightly as he looked at the necklace.

"It belonged to my mother and her mother before her and so on," he said, letting me go, "It suits you well."

I looked at him in shock.

It was more valuable than I'd realized...it was a family heirloom.

"I can't accept—"

"You can and you will," he insisted.

A moment of silence went by as I looked back down at it.

It was too much. Too much for an outsider.

Even bestowed with the family name I wasn't truly his family.

Feelings I couldn't place began welling up in my chest.

"Thank you," I said, trying to keep the shake from my voice. I'd never received a gift this nice, I almost didn't know how to react. I didn't feel like I could touch it.

He nodded. 

——————————

I wandered the first floor of the manor by myself after dinner.

It had been an extremely tense affair.

Lucius had checked his pocket watch incessantly for the first 10 minutes, as we sat in silence at a ridiculously long dining table.

We sat at one end—Lucius at the head of the table and myself on his right side. Though it was us two, it had been set for three. The empty plates glistened from the candlelight in front of us. 

I'd wanted to bite my nails so desperately as we waited in the suffocating quiet. 

He'd started tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair five minutes in. Lucius's anger grew by the minute, until his patience ran out.

"This is unacceptable," he'd said as he waved his hand, food suddenly appearing on both our plates.

The plate across from me remained empty.

It seemed his youngest son had failed to make the appearance he'd been ordered to.

I'd finished 3/4ths of my plate when an urgent owl, who'd flown down from the chimney fireplace in the dinning room, dropped a parchment onto Lucius's lap and made it's way back up the chimney.

He'd opened it and scowled. Then stuck it in his pant pocket.

"You'll have to finish up without me. I have something I need to take care of immediately," he'd said cryptically as he grabbed the serpents cane he'd had leaning against his chair, adding, "I'm not sure how long I'll be. You can leave your plate where it is when you've finished."

He'd stood up immediately and walked directly into his fireplace to be engulfed by green flames.

I'd gasped, for a moment believing I'd just witnessed the death of Lucius Malfoy, to then come back to my senses.

It must be some sort of magic, I reassured myself. It was quite a shocking thing to see happen.

So after I finished dinner, I'd decided to begin daunting task of getting to know the humongous manor.

It would have to be done in sections over a few days in order not to get overwhelmed.

I'd ended up at a large hallway on the first floor with beige curtained windows facing the backyard. The sky was turning a dark purple, the sun already having set. I stopped to look.

Shadows were beginning to engulf the landscape. The little lake beyond was still, the only disturbance being birds of some sort drifting leaving small ripples behind them.

My eyes refocused to my own reflection in the window.

She fit in here, the reflection of a girl with perfect hair and beautiful clothes. I wondered if I could switch places with her. Then I could watch her from where she was.

She looked better at it, fitting in here.

My reflection wasn't me.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a giggle and shuffling—so quiet and muffled I could have easily brushed it off as my imagination.

Still I stopped, looking over my shoulder at a pair of large thick doors behind me, brows furrowing.

I hadn't gone into any of the rooms yet.

I walked up to the doors and reached for the handle.